If you happen to be tuned to a local station you'll see the test.

You are correct. I misread the OP. VNC on Android. I'm sure there's a build for iPad too.

https://market.android.com/details?id=android.androidVNC

I haven't had much luck due to interfacing my tablet to the radio, but there is a program called DroidPSK that does psk31. Like most ham software on Android, it is very beta, but at least it exists.

Another good program is APRSdroid. Again, very beta but getting better.

If you're carrying a pack, consider the arrow satellite antenna. I used to carry it with me when hiking in the Rocky Mountain National Park, which is about as far away as you can get, and I could still hit repeaters in Breckenridge and sometimes my simplex echolink node in Fraser, along with APRS digis and repeaters in the front range, if I was on that side of the divide. With the carrying case I was able to strap it to the outside of the pack without adding much weight, and at camp I was also able to work satellites from the middle of nowhere.

But if you're that close to a repeater you might not need anything so elaborate. A J-pole would work well, along with anything other than the stock rubber duck.

Another thought: Had you worked this repeater before? If you could hear them well, it might be that there was a PL tone set that you didn't have programmed.

The signal-bar is not a good way to measure actual received signal strength. They are almost all different, depending on what the software engineer (and marketing department) decide 5 bars should stand for. Recall that the 1st iPhone had a signal bar scandal when it misreported signal strength after a firmware update.

See if there's a way to get to a diagnostic page on your device. Most phones have a "secret" menu that will give a real signal report, usually in dBm that can be much more useful. There are a lot of cellphone "enthusiast" sites that can provide this information. One I've used often is Howard Forums: http://www.howardforums.com/forums.php. There's a section for every manufacturer and carrier, and I think a section for amps and antennas. It's a good idea to thoroughly search for your answer before posting, since some of the people there can be pretty mean to newbies, but there's a lot of good info too.

Is the SSTV camera still operating? I recorded the signal a few times in August but haven't tried recently. That to me is the most interesting project on the satellite.

Thanks. I'll check it out. Has it been ported to other operating systems?

Well, there's a big problem right there! When most people hear about APRS they tend to think it's like an ATC radar display or (even worse), a TV tech-crime drama. Setting expectations to a reasonable level will make a huge difference. 


That sounds like a great idea. And you might even be able to make the case that a permanent digi at that site could be a year-around benefit.


Again, see if he/she would consider putting up a permanent digipeater. Having lived in an area where I had the only digipeater for about 60 miles (and in a lousy location) to an area with 3-4 good digipeaters, I can say that it doesn't take much to get coverage.


Running race updates shouldn't cause too much extra traffic on the network, I see them all the time in my area.


There was a plan on Bob Bruninga's site for building a 1200->9600 baud gateway using a D-700 and KPC-3 a while back. Look around, he's got a lot of good plans (although his budget seems to be higher than most).

It sounds like you're getting the right idea. You've got time, you know the route, so experiment. If 143.39MHz doesn't work well, try 70cm. 440MHz antennas are much smaller, so gain antennas are much easier to handle. But to me, it sounds like it won't take much for you to get better coverage with the 2 digis you spoke of, and there's not a ton of traffic in your area (or there'd be better coverage already). Also consider putting up PC based stations at food stations and for medical folks. That way they can send SMS-type alerts to the coordinators via the system in addition to the trackers. It gets a little more involved (mostly with keeping them powered up and manned), but messaging always seems to be forgotten in APRS world.

OK, here's two ideas:

1) Put a digipeater in one of the vans, with an external antenna and higher power. If grounding is a problem (you mentioned fiberglass), use a 1/2 wave antenna, like the Diamond NR770HA (I use it with great results). Use a gain antenna at the finish line (collinear, or a yagi if the race is in the same direction the whole time). The digi will have a better chance of picking up the other vans and passing them along, and will save a few bucks on the whole setup. And a better your setup on the vans the more likely you'll be picked up by other digipeaters.

2) Put a mobile IGate in one of the vans. Not an all-ham solution, but many smartphones will work like a hotspot or tether to get a PC on the Internet. Most of the IGate software out there is stable enough to work for a few hours without intervention. Set a path to another IGate that can be heard by the finish line if the owner has it set to gate traffic in both directions, or just have a hotspot at the finish line.

Everyone looks at the low Wattage beacons and think they'll do the job. They work great for some applications (like balloons), or if there are a lot of digipeaters around. If you're working without an infrastructure you need to do a lot more work. AFSK isn't very forgiving and voice repeaters aren't really designed to reliably pass it.

Just like cell phones, they'll be "rooted" and "jailbroken" in no time.

(begin rant) Seems to me the holy grail of product manufacturing is to do everything possible to keep the end user from being able to do any modifications to the product. Apparently the collective ego of the modern company is unable to cope with the backyard tinkerer. Have you looked at the modern automobile engine? There's two hoods (bonnets): The one that you open up to change the oil and the second one over all the metal parts. Two reasons for this: 1) they don't want you to touch anything 'lest you mess it up, and 2) They don't want you to notice how the engine block is the same casting as the '75 Caprice Classic you drove in high school.

When you look at the spaghetti code on top of spaghetti code that Windows has become, I think they really have to lock everyone out just because of embarrassment. Windows 7 is fairly good, but I don't have much of anything installed since I use Ubuntu Linux (with it's own set of problems... looking at moving on to Mint next) for everything except Win specific applications.

The one bright spot continues to be the chip makers. Mostly due to having real competition they just keep getting better and better, hiding all the bloat of modern software. Someone in the thread mentioned "Visa capable" vs "Vista ready" for a lot of the complaints, but when I have free OS that has a UI every bit as pretty as Aero Glass and can run circles on "Visa capable" hardware (that wasn't "capable" of running Aero), I have to wonder what is wrong with Windows, especially when we really aren't doing anything more with our PCs than we used to, except decoding Flash video...

I just installed a dual band mobile in a 2011 F-150. The battery terminals actually had connection points for a radio, both on the positive and negative terminals. I don't know if that's part of the towing kit or not, but there it is.

That fact, and the Ford installation guide I found on K0BG's site, tells me to use a negative return wire (fused) back to the battery.

The technique you describe is sort of like hitch-hiking up a telephone pole. Not something that should be used on a tower.

Use a proper fall-arrest (one for each hand) when going to the worksite.

http://www.amazon.com/Dbi-sala-1108652-Exofit-Harness-Climbing/dp/B000KL4KOG is one example of what to look for. Maybe overkill with the bosan's chair style seat, but you get the idea.

Boots should have 1" heel and steel shank (although lots of people like fiberglass for comfort during other tasks).

Hardhat. Leather gloves.

Fall-arrest should have 2 lanyards, one for each hand as you climb. Also have a strap so that once you are at the work site you can tie off and have 2 hands available.

Pouch on the side for hand tools and small parts. Also a ropeline and 5gal bucket for pulling up parts after you get to the work site. Don't climb with anything other than your fall-arrest hooks in your hands.

Don't forget your brain!

Back when I climbed telephone poles for a living I got to ride an elevator down to the ground one afternoon. Not fun at all, and a scar on my abdomen as a reminder! I can only imagine how much worse it would have been if I were up at tower heights. Don't get me wrong, I like to climb towers and poles, but it is not something that should be taken with a grain of salt. My employer requires me to re-certify every year, with good reason.

Take your time, understand the risks and have fun.

Oh, it's definitely overkill. It's just that when you're trying to point the arrow, tune for Doppler, run a recorder and hit the PTT button it can get a little hectic. Offloading tasks to the PC would be nice. I've got the Az/El telescope mount working (not well, but it works). The PC also makes an OK recorder. Rig control would bring it all together. I know that most people would consider it somewhat less exciting, but for me, getting everything cobbled together and working well enough to let me sit back and work sats as easily as the local repeater is the challenge. In fact I'm not really all that active, I just like futzing with the hardware.

I already use my FT897 for the downlink, so just putting it in FM mode would work well enough and get me 90% of the way there. A radio with a better CAT interface would help too, given that there's no way to control both VFOs on the FT897 via CAT.

A real CAT interface on an HT would be nice though.